Editor's Note

when weird’s GOOD

When kids or adults use the word “weird” to describe someone, that almost always implies that someone’s not good. To use the word weird is to insert a put down, an insult ... in the most off-putting way. “You’re weird,” is what a kid might say to another kid when he doesn’t understand the other’s sense of humor, or when the child does something not considered “normal” or “cool.” My own mother used the word weird to describe someone in a derogatory way. If a boy was “weird,” it meant he was the “wrong” kind of boy. If she said I was acting “weird,” it meant she was worried about me.

But weird is often a shield against what we don’t understand. My oldest child described a girl in her sixth-grade class as weird and all of the kids thought she was, too, and then something ... well, weird happened. They all discovered what an incredible talent the girl had for drawing. And suddenly she wasn’t so weird. She was a gifted artist. No one else could draw like her, and the teacher gave her the utmost respect for it. Soon all the kids did, too. Weird became good.

My nephew, Randall — who has also been called weird — is preparing to embark on a national tour with his rock band, Ensphere. They’ve been signed to a label. Ensphere bought a 1989 Bluebird bus, painted it the colors of their band, and are prepping it for the launch this month. Randall has tattoos, piercings and a penchant for pyrotechnics on stage, but he is also a health nut, in-touch with current events and one of the most self-realized 23-year-olds I know. Again, weird is good.

Kids described as weird are the recipients of an age-old sterotype that continues to work itself into our homes. Long ago, and still today, parents refuse to allow their children to go into the arts as a vocation for fear of a life of squalor and ill repute. The catch here is that artistic hopefuls have to start out in the arts as a nobody in order to make it. The fact that artists (actors, musicians, painters, dancers and all of the various forms in between) must attempt to achieve success when there’s very little room at the top makes it a risky endeavor indeed. There are plenty of kids who say they love art and plenty of parents who say their child is artistic ... and we all have various aptitudes for the arts, but genuine talent is another thing altogether. When it’s genuine, weird is good.

Yet the arts are for ALL children. Childhood is the most creative time of life. Learning happens fast, nothing is yet determined for a future pathway and anything goes. As much as we sign our kids up for soccer or baseball we should sign them up for arts because they deserve the chance to discover what they’ve got and how to think about life in an individual way. In academic settings we have to follow the rules of the classroom, the rubric, the plan. On the playing field, again, there are rules of play that must be followed. While any art as a profession involves highly-achieved craftsmanship, initially, in childhood, they are simply a means for finding out about yourself. There are no rules. The answer to all of the early questions is simply YOU.

So watch out for “weird,” because it is often good. Careful to judge another by how he looks, because he just might be the next Grammy winner. And when it comes to the arts for your children, know that some of the happiest, most fulfilled souls walking the Earth are the creative ones who know themselves best.